The Rose Hotel

If there’s any part of the Los Angeles area that can still reasonably be described as bohemian, it’s Venice, and as such it’s a natural location for a low-frills, vintage-inspired boutique of the new breed. The sort of place that’s curated, if you’ll forgive the expression, rather than designed. The Rose Hotel springs from the minds of fashion photographer Glen Luchford and portrait shooter Doug Bruce, whose description of the place speaks for itself: “We never set out to create the perfect hotel; our walls are thin, and the building is wonky… But it’s not like any other hotel.”

The old house had a colorful history, to say the least, from its birth in Venice’s early days as something not unlike a brothel to a Sixties drug-scene flophouse and even the headquarters of one of L.A.’s most notorious street gangs. Needless to say, it’s come quite a long way, and it was thoroughly (and thoughtfully) renovated for a price tag that’s a tenth of the norm for a modern boutique hotel.

We almost wish the term “shabby chic” hadn’t already been invented (and lived a full life, however brief, only to die of overuse at the hands of a thousand interior-makeover reality shows), because we’d be happy to coin it as a description of the Rose Hotel’s interiors. Simple colors and rich restored construction are brought to life by vintage furnishings, all ruled by a decidedly modern sensibility (in the person of interior designer Katerina Tana), and the artwork, as you’d expect given the hotel’s pedigree, is a cut or two above the usual hotel fare.

Rooms range from very affordable shared-bath bedrooms to some properly luxurious residential-style suites, a bit of something for any conceivable budget. As for services, they’re delightfully minimal, and delightfully well chosen: Stumptown coffee, exquisite croissants from Sugarbloom Bakery, and daily deliveries from Moon Juice. They’ll help you take advantage of the proximity to the Pacific, just yards away, with advice on all manner of sporting activities, aquatic or otherwise — and the city that surrounds you, don’t forget, is nothing if not unique, a one-of-a-kind California classic.

Text Courtesy of Tablet Hotels